Real Estate Marketing & Beyond
Are you using Google+ hangouts for your business? Seriously, when I first heard about this new tool I thought to myself, yeah, just what we need, another social media option. From Vimeo, to Hulu to YouTube, to Facebook and a whole host of other options, did we really need another way to share content with our followers?
Turns out, I was wrong. Shhhh don’t tell my husband! If you are looking for answers to your social media questions or want to improve upon your social media engagement process, take a minute and check out SocialmediaExaminer. This fantastic website has LOADS of information for businesses lost in the “Social Media Jungle”, and when I read their post about how businesses can use Google+ hangouts I became inspired to try this option out myself.
As a real estate professional, it’s important to stay in touch with your clients, and it’s also important to keep your name in front of your target market. The following strategies can help you to do just that.
Public Hangouts
Use a public hangout to solicit information from your customers - determining what they are looking for, what they would like for you to do for them, etc. This beats out regular old email because it is all centrally located and following the conversation is easy for everyone involved - even lurkers.
How you respond to questions, the quality of the information you provide - all of this can be gleaned simply from watching the hangout feed. This information will of course inform prospective clients as to whether they want to deal with you or not.
Alert your current (and future) clients about changes in the industry that could affect them - open up the floor for conversation about what they can do to reduce the impact and/or take advantage of the changes.
Private Hangouts
Private Google+ hangouts can positively impact your productivity. With the “extras” version you can share documents and use whiteboard collaboration among your team members, and even hold weekly meetings with co-workers or other business professionals as desired.
While there are a myriad of other technologies available to do these kinds of things, the ease of getting started is a big plus for this service, as is the price - free. Also, a large number of individuals use google already for their mail, their calendars and more, so the ability to streamline activity is very appealing.
Hangouts on Air
A long awaited feature known as Hangouts on Air is in essence a live streaming capability that is now available to all Google+ users. The limitation of 10 users is still in place, however those who are late to the party can watch the event instead of missing out entirely. Of course this could prove frustrating to those who want to get the last word in, but hey, it’s something, right?
Make Connections
There are already a lot of businesses on Google+ hangouts. You can check to see if there are any near you that you can connect with.
Are you using Google+ hangouts yet? If you are, please share how you are using this technology. If not, why not check it out?
